An Emotion Confirmed
by Serendah Cilis
Summary: I SUCK at summaries. Just read the damn story. Contains yaoi. Rated M for a reason. Same rules apply as all of my other stories: don't bitch about shit or I'll spam your inbox to Pluto and back. I don't own Avatar so don't sue me. I can't afford any more absences or I'll have to repeat freshman year.
1. In The Cave

**Chapter 1**

**In the Cave**

Near the Northern Water Tribe, in a cave, Aang is lying on the icy ground, tied up. Zuko is sitting only inches from the young Avatar, leaning against the wall. His body is burnt. He has his eyes set on the sleeping air bender with the glowing tattoos. Zuko can feel his face heat up. He's blushing at the contact he has with the young bender. Aang's head is rested in Zuko's lap. He knows that he's dangerously attracted to Aang, he just doesn't know why.

_Why do I feel like this?_ Zuko thought with a look of confusion on his face. _I don't know why I feel like this._ _I don't want…_

His thoughts are interrupted by a bright blue light. The glow of Aang's tattoos ceases to exist at that moment. Aang groans from drowsiness but opens his eyes. As the smaller teen wakes up, Zuko holds his breath out of fear that he will startle the boy he's watching.

Aang sits up, looks around, and sees Zuko sitting right beside him, face smeared with a blush. He starts to scream but is stopped by something highly unexpected. Zuko is kissing him.

Zuko's arms are wrapped around Aang's body, untying the ropes that held his hands behind his back. His lips are pressed to Aang's lips. Their tongues fighting for dominance. Both of them have their eyes closed tightly.

Within seconds, Zuko has the ropes off of Aang's wrists. With his hands free, Aang wraps one arm around Zuko's shoulders, running his other hand through the older boy's hair.

After a few minutes, Aang's friend, Katara, pulls Zuko away from Aang. He winces at the loss of contact with the fire bender. His eyes snap open when he hears Zuko land against the wall of the cave with a loud crack. Aang immediately rushes over to Zuko's side and cradles him in his arms. The fire bender in his arms is completely limp, barely breathing, unconscious, and has a weak heartbeat. Blood is pouring from a gash in the back of his head. As he looks at his blood stained hand, tears fill his eyes.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?" Aang screamed at Katara, tears rolling freely down his young face.

"I thought he was going to hurt you Aang," she said in response.

"DID IT LOOK LIKE HE WAS GOING TO HURT ME!"

"What's going on?" Sokka, Katara's older brother, asked from the mouth of the cave, standing with Princess Yue.

"Katara hurt Zuko," Aang says, turning to face Sokka. Aang picks Zuko up, one arm supporting his upper body the other arm under his knees. As he stands, he shoots a look of hatred at Katara, and runs to his bison, Appa. "Are you guys coming or not?"

With that everyone except Aang jumps into the saddle on Appa. Aang sits in his usual spot, on Appa's head, with Zuko in his lap. Aang has the reins wrapped around his arm. He has one arm wrapped around Zuko's shoulders, and his free hand pressed to the open wound on the back of Zuko's head, trying to stop or slow the bleeding. His clothes are already soaked with Zuko's blood. Aang is no longer crying. The sadness on his face has been replaced by a look of seriousness and determination. He knows in his heart that he's going to fix Zuko one way or the other. He has to know that the kiss that Zuko and he shared was real. He had to know that his feelings for Zuko are confirmed and accepted. He had to know if Zuko loves him as much as he loves Zuko. No matter what he does, he can't stop thinking about the kiss in the cave.


	2. Somewhere Safe

**Chapter 2**

**Somewhere Safe**

After flying for about half an hour, they reached the Northern Water Tribe. Aang immediately got off of Appa and ran to the healing teacher. He was running faster than anyone cared to figure out. He was carrying Zuko in his arms.

"Well hello Aang. What seems to be the problem?" the healer asks.

"Katara threw him against the wall," he replies, panic and concern in his voice. "He hit his head and it won't stop bleeding."

"Bring him over here, child. I'll heal him," she stated as calmly as she could. The second she saw Zuko's injury, she started to heal him.

After a few minutes, she finished healing the teen's wound. When Zuko opened his eyes, all he saw was the ceiling. He didn't recognize it and that feeling of not knowing where he was caused him to panic. In his panic, Zuko blasted a fireball at random. Aang used what little firebending skills he had to get rid of the fire the second it appeared.

"Zuko calm down. It's okay. You're safe," Aang said as he tried to comfort the scared boy. Zuko's eyes shown in fear, until he heard the voice of the one person he cared about. Aang cupped the side of Zuko's face as he ran his fingers through the older boy's hair. "Are you okay?"

Zuko then remembered what had happened and started to shake at the memory. "I never knew a girl could be so strong."

"Who the hell said that a girl couldn't be strong?" Katara all but shouted when she showed up in the doorway with Sokka and Yue. Her voice was enough to scare Zuko. Aang just glared at her for a second then went back to comforting Zuko. Katara starts to get angry and her rage gets channeled through her bending.

The ice starts to crack around her and Zuko. Aang refreezes the ice around Zuko because he knows that Katara can handle herself in the water but Zuko can't. "Katara stop before you hurt someone," Aang says with a tone in his voice that he'd never used with her before.

"Hurt someone? Like who? Zuko?" Katara says in pure rage and hatred. "That son of a bitch HUNTED you all over the world! Or have you forgotten?"

"I'm sorry," Zuko says in a quiet voice, tears now running down his face. "I just wanted approval from my father. I didn't want to hurt any of you, especially not Aang."

"Yeah right, and I'm a Howler Monkey. A sob story to make us feel bad for you won't work," Katara snapped. She then used her powers to surround Zuko in a bubble of water.

Aang was now pissed. He got rid of the water using his own powers and held Zuko as close to him as he possibly could without crushing him. Zuko coughed uncontrollably when the water was gone. "Thank you for healing him, ma'am," is all Aang said before he left at his inhuman top speed.

"Where are we going?" Zuko asks.

"Somewhere safe."


	3. With Vengeful Eyes

**Chapter 3**

It didn't take very long for Aang to get to the spiritual hot spot of the Northern Water Tribe. Zuko recognizes the place immediately and starts looking around for Katara. Aang sees this and reassures him that it's okay and that he's safe.

"But what if she's here?" Zuko asks in pure panic.

"Zuko, it's okay. I won't let her hurt you," Aang replies.

"Okay."

"Come on," Aang says as he gently pulls the fire bender towards the small pool of water that has two Koi fish in it. "I wanna show you something." They walk over to the edge and Aang sits on his knees. Zuko follows suit and sits next to him. Aang points to the two fish swimming in circles. "See those two fish?"

"Yeah," Zuko replies calmly.

"The white one is Tui, the Moon Spirit. The black one is La, the Ocean Spirit. The water benders get their power from the moon," he says. He then looks at Zuko and continues. "The first water bender was the moon. The ancestors of the water benders watched the moon push and pull the tide and learned to do it themselves."

Zuko looked at Aang and said, "Just like the fire benders and the Dragons."

"Speaking of fire," came the voice of Admiral Zhao. "I see you're still alive Zuko."

"Aang! I know you're here somewhere! Where did you take Zuko?!" Katara shouted. She spots them and then the admiral. "What are you doing here?"

"I was here to do something," he says with a hand on his hip. "But now that I see that Zuko's alive, I've got some unfinished business to attend to. You?"

"I'm here to destroy Zuko," the tan girl says.

"Would you like to earn a lot of money? I'll pay you to tear him to shreds," Zhao says with a fire in his eyes.

"No. I'm doing this for my own reason. Now stay back!"

"Okay," he says and steps back onto one of the bridges.

Katara walks over to Zuko and Aang with rage in her eyes. Zuko starts to panic. Aang moves to where he's in between the two blocking Zuko from Katara's rage. He's more than a little defensive and Katara can tell. She tries to get around Aang but with every step she takes to go around him, he moves so that he's in front of Zuko.

"Aang, I don't want to hurt you so just get out of the way," she says calmly but with anger weighing down her words.

"And let you hurt Zuko? I don't think so," Aang says in pure defense.

"Why are you protecting him?!" the water bender shouts. "He's done nothing but hunt you like an animal! Yet, NOW you think he's changed! People don't change overnight, Aang!"

"He said that he just wanted his father to accept him and I believe him. You might not but I do. And I don't care what you say or what he's done, I believe him."

"You care about him more than you let on, don't you Aang?" Princess Yue says from the other bridge. Aang just looks at her, smile a little, and nods. Zuko looks at him with surprise on his face and relief in his eyes. "I figured as much."

"How did you find out?" Aang asks.

"I had suspected you had feelings for him when you got angry with Katara for throwing him against the wall of the cave. You two are friends, so I assumed that for you to be so mad at her about that, Zuko had to have meant a lot to you. Now, seeing how protective of him you are, my suspicions are confirmed."

Zuko blushes and looks at Aang. He asks, "Is that true? Aang, do you care about me?"

"Yeah. More than anything," Aang says as he looks over his shoulder sending a small smile towards the young fire bender. His smile is returned with a smile from Zuko paired with tears of joy. Seeing the tears staining Zuko's face, Aang turns around and says, "Why are you crying?"

As Aang wipes the tears from Zuko's face, Zuko says, "I'm just so happy. I really like you Aang but I was afraid that you didn't feel the same." Zuko wraps his arms around Aang's shoulders and rests his head in the crook of Aang's neck. He then whispers, "I think I love you."

Aang blushes when he hears Zuko say that. He gently pushes Zuko away so that he's looking at his confused face. Aang just smiles and kisses Zuko. When he pulls away, he whispers, "Love you too." Just as Zuko was about to say something, Zhou throws a fire ball of fire their way and hits Zuko in the back. The pain of the fire burning a hole in his clothes and burning his skin makes Zuko scream. When he tries to turn around to throw a fireball of his own, everything goes black and he loses consciousness, collapsing limply into Aang's arms.

As realization hit Aang like a brick wall, he started to panic. In Aang's panic, he went into the Avatar State and shot a look of glowing hatred at Admiral Zhou with vengeful eyes.


End file.
